Foul Body Autopsy – Shadows Without Light: Part 3 The Conclusion To The Journey
The journey has been long. It has taken me through shadowed vales of despair, arid deserts of loneliness and echoing chasms of black, impenetrable grief. I have passed beneath the naked boughs of the wood of suicides and swum the cold waters of Lethe, losing a part of myself with every stroke. And now at the end of this last passage through the deep chambers of the earth I find I have a choice, when all along I thought that choice had gone. I can walk on, out into the light…or I can turn back into the dark, back to the chill shades of night which have become my comfortless home. And I don’t know which way to turn…
Back in the autumn of 2021 Tom Reynolds, the man that is Foul Body Autopsy, began his long walk through a grieving process; a process which he decided to chart through a trilogy of EPs. The Shadows Without Light recordings have laid bare Tom’s pain and loss to the world – the simple, underlying aim of the project remaining unchanged since he first announced his intentions... “maybe it can help someone else along the way.” As we reach the final part of this brave odyssey it seems certain that such emotionally honest music will have connected powerfully with many who have found themselves at different stages of their own battles with bereavement. However the Shadows Without Light EPs will have thrilled as many as they have consoled – the power of Foul Body Autopsy’s trademark precision death metal, wreathed in emotive melody and driven by fierce conviction, being never more complete and convincing than on these ambitious releases. Part 3 offers up two versions of its core track – the magnificently intense original mix and the challenging, transformative Plan 9 mix. Tom Reynolds has portrayed the essential heart of Foul Body Autopsy and pushed beyond the boundaries of that sound with two tracks that compliment and complete each other, creating the most successful and suitably climactic part of the Shadows Without Light saga.
Looking back on the project which has consumed the last year of his life Tom reflects... “Working on the trilogy has been an interesting yet challenging experience. But I feel each part has been better than the last. I haven't gotten round to listening to them all back-to-back to see how it all fits together though. I am considering playing all three death metal tracks back-to-back live. I'm happy that it's finished and I can move on to a different project that's possibly a little simpler as the trilogy was a lot of stress, especially after all the press that Pt.1 had.” While Shadows Without Light will still have a role to play in his immediate future plans, he is also starting to think about those first steps out into the light... “My plan now is to play as many gigs as possible, as well as some festivals if they will have me, in support of the trilogy as a whole. I will possibly try out some new songs at these gigs as well to see how they work live. I haven't done that in years so it will be a good way of road testing the new songs.”
Shadows Without Light Part 3 was once again produced by Russ Russell (Amorphis, At The Gates, Napalm Death etc) and the last part of the triptych of stunning artwork was, as with the previous two, created by Arif Rot of Wormrot. On November 4th prepare to take the final steps in this incredible journey as a remarkable chapter in the Foul Body Autopsy story comes to a close.